Valentino Rossi stamped himself as one of the greats of motorcycle racing with his brilliant effort in winning Sunday's Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island.

Challenge the motivator for Rossi

Valentino Rossi stamped himself as one of the greats of motorcycle racing with his brilliant effort in winning Sunday's Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island.

But the superb ride, in which he was able to overcome a 10-second penalty, must raise questions about whether he will leave Honda for another team next year.

While Rossi's exhibition of riding was breathtaking, it was also blindingly obvious that when he had to push his Honda to the limit, there was nothing else on the track remotely able to keep pace with it.

"I believe that every time you see Rossi race you are seeing history being made," was the unqualified endorsement given by former world champion Wayne Gardner, who brilliantly won two GPs at Phillip Island.

"He is the best thing I have ever seen in motorcycle racing, but now he must be asking himself whether he wants the challenge of bringing up another machine to challenge the Honda and proving himself by being able to do so, or whether he just wants to go on winning championships. The Honda is clearly the best bike out there; they hardly have to touch a thing from one race to the next. All they need to do is to work out what tyre they want and go racing, while everyone else out there is chasing their tails on set-up."

Gardner, among others, believes Rossi's decision will be not just about money but about peripheral matters such as the required number of days of testing and public relations appearances, the length of his contract, and even whether he should keep his favoured No.46 racing number (which was an integral part of his huge merchandising empire) or whether he should carry No.1, which was what Honda wanted to see for its promotional purposes.

"The Yamaha people are pretty confident of getting him, but he certainly hasn't signed anything and he's in a strong position," Gardner said.

"If he just wants to win races and championships, he would be foolish to leave Honda, because he has the best bike and the best team. But he likes a challenge -- just look at the way he went from winning championships on 125s, 250s, 500s and then MotoGP. And going to someone like Yamaha and winning a championship with them would stamp him as being a special champion."

Gardner said although Ducati was also being mentioned, realistically Yamaha was the only team other than Honda that could support Rossi in the manner needed for him to win a title. Also, Rossi was uncomfortable about riding with Ducati's tobacco sponsorship, Gardner said.

He said a measure of Rossi's worth was that payments to other riders weren't close to the reputed $17 million to $20m (although this could be for a two-year deal) offered to the Italian.

"The low-ranked guys could be on around $500,000 a year and the top group would be on around $2m, and [Alex] Barros is on $5m for two years, so Rossi's way above those numbers and his merchandising is probably worth another $10m to $20m on top of that."

While money might not be the key aim of the talks, there's plenty of it being offered, said Gardner, who believed Rossi would stay with Honda.

Wet-weather West home in second

Wet-weather specialist Anthony West made a dramatic return to form to clinch second place behind Italian Roberto Rolfo in the 250cc Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island yesterday.

Rolfo blasted away from eighth spot on the grid to lead by more than seven seconds after two laps, and was never headed.

West, from the Gold Coast, closed mid-race when the Italian briefly lost concentration.

Spain's Fonsi Nieto was third.

The championship, led by Manuel Poggiali of San Marino, will be decided at the final race in Valencia, Spain.

West broke through for his first victory this year when he won the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen in June. He was third in the race before and the race after, but since then has had only meagre results.

West fought hard on Sunday to make up the gap to Rolfo, who cruised home by 14s.

"I'm happy because now the championship is open," Rolfo said. "Today the bike was perfect but the conditions were difficult. I tried to concentrate from the start because this track is very fast and is more dangerous when it is wet."

Rolfo's seven-second lead was cut to 3.5s when he lost focus, but as soon as he realised West was catching him he began to widen the gap.

On a drying track, West said he was delighted with second.

"Being at home helped a lot and the weather helped me out. I like the rain," West said. "Roberto got off to a really good start and opened up a big gap, and he held up."

. In the 125cc Grand Prix Hunter Valley teenager Casey Stoner crashed out of contention while in the lead.

Stoner, 18, failed to finish after falling victim to the dreaded Lukey Heights section in the slippery conditions. Italian Honda rider Andrea Ballerini made the most of Stoner's misfortune to claim his first GP win.